Monday, 18 February 2019

Heavy rains pounded Muzvezve area last night and derailed
search efforts for bodies of miners trapped at Silver Moon and Cricket mines in
Battlefields.

At a time teams were battling to dewater the mines, heavy
downpours were experienced in the Battlefields area, thereby prolonging the
process of pumping out water from the shafts.

Early this Monday the dewatering exercise was still
on-going. The tragedy that has since been declared a state of disaster has put
Mines and Mining Development officials on a jolt with Mines Minister Winston
Chitando promising to institute a raft of measures to bring normalcy in the
informal mining sector.

Minister Chitando said prior to the tragedy warning bells
on the occupational safety risks at the mines sounded by the Environmental
Management Agency (EMA) were ignored.

The tragedy, one of the worst in the mining sector in
recent years, has attracted attention from several quarters, including
religious leaders who on Sunday converged at the scene for prayers and
delivered words of comfort to bereaved families.

Reverend Useni Sibanda of the Zimbabwe Christian Alliance
delivered a sermon at the scene of the tragedy.

Zimbabwe Miners Federation President Henrietta Rushwaya
called on government to formalise the operations of artisanal miners to promote
safe work place practices .

Meanwhile, EMA has chipped in with a US$10 000 relief
package to help bereaved families and those carrying out the bodies retrieval
exercise.

In the same vein, Rushwaya also provided several protective
clothing to team members who are carrying out the search for bodies from the two
mines. zbc